1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to an apparatus for recording and reproducing information onto/from a recording medium having a ring buffer area where an information signal such as audio signal or video signal is recorded and reproduced circulatively.
2. Description of Related Art
In recent years, hard disk recorders are attracting a great attention as a recording device in which a program provided by television broadcast or the like is recorded onto a hard disk instead of a video tape. When a hard disk is used as a recording medium, the following-function, for example, can be realized. That is, while all programs which are broadcasted on that day (programs of desired channels) are sequentially recorded without any selection, the recorded program can also be reproduced simultaneously. To realize this type of recording function, a ring buffer area is provided in the hard disk. The hard disk recorder sequentially records each broadcast program received by a tuner onto the ring buffer area from a head position thereof. When the recording onto the last position of the ring buffer area is finished, a recording position returns to the head position of the ring buffer area and the recording is continued therefrom. That is, each of the broadcasted programs is sequentially recorded in the ring buffer area on the hard disk in a circulative way. If a recording capacity of the ring buffer area is set to a capacity that allows recording of all of the broadcast programs of, for example, one day, it follows that all of the programs broadcasted on that day are recorded. If, however, broadcast programs on the next day are also recorded subsequently recorded, the broadcast programs on the next day are sequentially recorded from the head position of the ring buffer area, to overwrite the previously recorded programs. That is, the programs recorded in the ring buffer area cannot be held permanently.
In order to prevent this problem, a memory area to permanently hold the programs recorded in the ring buffer area may be provided in the hard disk separately from the ring buffer area. Usage of this area is, for example, as follows. In response to a user's designation of a program which he wants to store permanently, the hard disk recorder reads out the program designated by the user from the programs recorded in the ring buffer area and records it into the memory area.
Since the recording capacity of each of the ring buffer area and memory area in the hard disk has been previously determined, only a length of program corresponding to the predetermined recording capacity can be recorded in the ring buffer area even if an empty area exists in the memory area.